Accused 9/11 conspirator kicked out of Gitmo court for complaining about torture

A Yemeni national accused of helping plan the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks was ejected three times from a courtroom at the United States military base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba this week during pretrial hearings.

Ramzi Binalshibh, 41, caused a commotion during both the morning
and afternoon sessions at Gitmo on Tuesday this week, so much so
that Army Colonel Judge James Pohl elected twice to remove him
from the proceedings. On Wednesday, Binalshibh again earned
himself a ticket out of the court after angrily protesting his
confinement before the judge.

Binalshibh was first expelled from court on Tuesday morning after
he refused to provide Pohl with a yes-or-no response when he was
asked if he understood his rights. Instead the detainee erupted
before the judge in both English and Arabic about “secret CIA
prisons” and “torture,” according to multiple
accounts from reporters who covered the hearing at both the base
and from before closed-circuit feed provided to the media at Fort
Meade, Maryland.

"If you don't stop talking, you will be escorted out of the
court at this time,” Pohl warned the man, according to
Reuters’ dispatch from Ft. Meade.

Defying the judge’s orders, the detainee continued to complain
loudly and was soon after ordered by the judge to be removed.

Binalshibh was back before the court that afternoon, but again
began complaining, this time of torture, until Pohl again ordered
his expulsion.

New York Times reporter Charlie Savage witnessed the Tuesday
afternoon escapade from Ft. Meade, and said he heard Binalshibh
begin to complain loudly about the facility in which he’s spent
the last seven years without trial while being ejected.

“As guards took him away the second time to watch the hearing
on a monitor in a nearby holding cell,” Savage
wrote, “[Binalshibh’s] voice faded from the
closed-circuit feed that reporters — some at a media facility on
the base, some here at Fort Meade — are allowed to watch.”

“I am not a war criminal; you are a war criminal,”
Savage said he heard Binalshibh yell as officials again removed
him from court.

When he was brought back before Pohl on Wednesday, Binalshibh
again opted not to cooperate with the court’s questioning and
instead insisted that he’s been subjected to sleep-deprivation at
Gitmo brought on by guards who he claims purposely keep him up at
night.

“I have to leave,” he told the judge, according to the
Herald. “I asked you to stop these vibrations.”

Prosecutors say they have not been treating detainees at Gitmo
unfairly, including Binalshibh and his fellow supposed Al-Qaeda
operatives.

Along with Binalshibh, alleged 9/11 co-conspirators Ammar
Al-Baluchi, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, Walid bin Attash and Mustafa
Al-Hawsawi are all eligible for the death penalty pending the
outcome of their eventual military commission, which is likely
still another year away.

According to classified Department of Defense detainee assessment
briefs published by WikiLeaks, Binalshibh met with many
high-level Al-Qaeda leaders, including Osama bin Laden, and
planed further operations for the extremists up until three
months before being captured in late 2002. He was transferred to
Gitmo four years later.